Instead of watching Madoka alone, on my couch and in the dark….I watched it in broad daylight with my grandma puttering about, cleaning stuff, and talking about girls getting raped on the news. Of course, no matter the circumstances, Madoka is so haunting and engaging that I could have a thousand MOANING LES-Q’S playing in the background and still be moved.

Sayaka gives Kyubei a piece of her mind as soon as she gets home, absolutely incensed that Kyubei never told her about the contract deals later. Kyubei says “Well, you never asked!”, proving that the devil is in the details. With the body and soul separated, Sayaka has a much higher threshold for pain, demonstrated when Kyubei touches her soul gem and presumably brings her soul and body a bit closer together again so she feels the aftermath of that battle with Kyoko.

Homura admits to Madoka that she knew this all along, but no one ever believed her when she told them. Once again, she insists that Madoka gives up on her teal-haired friend in the usual cold manner. Why so cold? Because she’s barely even human anymore.

Sayaka is skipping class to mope under the blankets. Her sulking would have continued if it weren’t for Kyoko calling her out to have a wee chat. She actually didn’t call her out to tease her into wanting a fight, but to just explain how she’s adapted to the new knowledge of her soul being ripped out. It’s a deal, fair and square, and she’s paying for what she bought. Sayaka doesn’t really seem to buy it, so Kyoko takes her to a church to reveal her entire backstory.

Will you take a bite from the fruit of knowledge, Eve?

This dilapidated building used to be Kyoko’s dad’s church – a place where a very kind man tried to teach a new religion to appeal to the new generation. Everyone wrote off his ramblings of that of a madmen from a cult, and left the church. Kyoko was poor, and hardly got anything to eat. Wanting to change this, she asked Kyubei to make everyone listen to her father’s sermons. It worked splendidly until her dad found out that he wasn’t interested, people were just being magically forced to listen to him. He called Kyoko, who was working hard to kill witches for the sake of others, a witch. He killed everyone in the family except for Kyoko and then committed suicide.

After laying her heart out on the floor to explain why Sayaka shouldn’t use magic for others, she stomps all over it. Sayaka refuses to stop trying to help others with her magic, and then walks off. Not before asking where Kyoko gets all her food (lulz, stolen?). So much for Madoka’s mom’s “make mistakes first so your friends will realize how stupid they are!” philosophy.

The next day, Sayaka returns to school. It’s awkward. Maximum awkward. Madoka and Hitomi give her weird looks and she has to avoid Kamijo (you’ll find out why later). The awkward levels rise exponentially when Hitomi has a private chat with Sayaka, confessing that she loves Kamijo. Sayaka is shocked, and is faced with either admitting her feelings or letting Hitomi have the man she loves.

The next time we see Sayaka, her strong front is completely shattered. She’s left sobbing in Madoka’s arms, disgusted at her inability to ever love Kamijo given her current body. She almost wishes she hadn’t saved Hitomi, which makes her feel like a jerk too. This time, Madoka is the strong one. She comforts Sayaka (doesn’t provide any advice though) and follows her on her next witch hunt.

Kyoko is still playing her “nice girl” card, and watches from afar as Sayaka fights a witch. This time, the witch realm is that of black silhouettes (like shadow puppets), showing everyone as dark figures. Sayaka is beaten up pretty badly, so Kyoko steps in and offers to kill it for her. Instead of accepting help, Sayaka thrusts herself into the open and mindlessly slashes the witch over and over. With those maniacal giggles, it’s quite clear she has fully separated her body and soul so that she can’t feel pain.

Bonus Apples:

…Aw crap, a razorblade

Something tells me Sayaka is gonna want her money back after the puppet show

End Thoughts: Will Madoka Magica ever stop being awesome every single week? I hope it doesn’t. Thinking back on it, this episode is pretty much just people talking…But my God, I was hanging onto every word and lapping it up. The first hard-hitting speech was from Kyubei, who seems to just run on logic. I grant a wish, you kill witches for me. I give you powers, so you have to use this new body. It’s equivalent exchange, and the soul is just another piece of goods that can can be traded and bartered with, as if we were talking about Pokemon cards. Are you even conscious of your soul right now? No one even NOTICED their soul was stuck into a gem, so who cares, right? Looking at it from a pragmatic sense, as Kyubei does, it’s a good contract. Of course, humans LIKE their souls even if it’s intangible and impossible to be aware of, and losing your soul is…well…IT’S A BIG DEAL.

I figured Kyoko made a nice wish and had some sort of underlying reason for adopting her independent style. Her story really explained why she acts the way she does, from her constant eating to her method of coping with losing everything for one wish. I don’t think Kyoko’s coping method is really wrong…treating the contract as a business contract without an emotions attached is a good way to look at it while retaining your sanity. It means turning a blind eye towards the painful reality a bit, but it works for her. Sayaka method? Not so good. She still hasn’t found a way to deal with having her soul and body separated, to the point where she just separates them completely to blot out the pain. And to think she was supposed to be the strong one. You can only go so far penting up all your emotions inside. =/

Last week I asked you guys how you would deal with Kyoko in Sayaka’s shoes. My response? Let her use her dirty methods, but try to get closer to her and find out why…Then slowly try to convert her into spending less of her time letting witches kill people and more time actually saving people. If I don’t manage to worm my way into her heart successfully (I bet you I could) then I’ll just leave her the way she is and at least do MY part. That question kind of has no point now though, since Kyoko is all nice now. orz.

I would rather Sayaka die than Kyoko, especially now that I know more about her past. Then at least Madoka might have to man up (woman up?) and be a mahou shoujo. Sayaka seems past saving now, so I’m not sure what the point of keeping her alive is…

i have this feeling that sayaka will kill kyoko, and she’s gona go bastshit crazy soon. and god, what’s her problem? at least she has a soul! look at ayumu, he’s just a walking body! ayumu needs to be friends with sayaka
i used to like sayaka a lot, but not i’m all 🙁 when i see her.

lesson from this episode? don’t get obsessed with one guy. at least don’t have you life centered on him.

Ayumu needs to tell Sayaka that being a zombie does not even come close to stopping his harem from forming. XD Her sudden change from being the strong one into being the one who makes bad decisions makes me shake my head too…

This episode I really felt like kicking the shit out of Kyubey. Seriously. SOMEBODY’S got to do it because of his iffy don’t ask don’t tell contract policy. I got spoilered a little and thought that Sayaka turned into the witch we saw in Madoka’s dream. But after seeing this I think she IS going to turn into that shadowy witch. OR MAYBE IT EATS HER AND TAKES ON HER FORM! O_O Anyways I think what Hitomi did was messed up. Just look at how it affected Sayaka’s psyche!

you know, its possible kyuubey is lying about their powers somehow. sayaka got her regeneration powers because of her wish right? well if kyoko wished for people to listen to her father, shouldnt she have big convincing and social skills?
she should have been able to sway sayaka. it makes me think it was just because of her magic that sayaka healed fast.

unless it doesnt work on other magical girls. it might explain how she easily gets food because they are normal people and can be convinced with her power. since magical girls arent human anyway….

What part would he be lying about though? He’s more the type to withhold information than straight up lie. He could be holding more cards up his sleeves though XD It’s still kind of blurry how wishes affect powers, because I still don’t know what kind of power Mami’s wish gave her. Shouldn’t the wishes only grant powers that could be used in battle? I think Kyoko just steals her food…

Not much to for me to say really other than Kyubey being tricky! Well not so much tricky since the girls never ask questions. You would think Mami would have told them then again maybe she wanted them to learn the hard way? Lol.

Sayaka at the end was awesome! But also seems she has changed a lot toward Madoka, course Sayaka now realizes she made a huge mistake becoming a magical girl or likes the new power? hahah can’t wait for more!

This episode was breathtaking ! Kyubey is amazingly evil (I actually love him for that) and he’s right. None of the magical girls asked for the full details of the contract, so there was no reason for him to give them. If he did tell them everything, no one would ever want to become a magical girl and witches would be running all over the place. So it’s better this way. I also think that Sayaka is overreacting a little. Mami had no clue that her soul was separated from her body and yet, she managed to live a normal life (well, as normal as a magical girl’s life can get). If she could just put that fact aside and accept it like Kyoko did, things would be easier on her. However, it’s nice to see her break down a little, it makes her character seem a lot more human to me :).

I’m quite mad at Hitomi for cornering Sayaka on the Kamijo front. It was obvious Sayaka wasn’t feeling too good and that she was fully in love with him. Hitomi definitely picked the worst time to make a move too. The guy just got out of the hospital, she should let him rest for a bit instead of having him worry of random green-haired girls confessing their love to him D:<. She should back off of him and just let Sayaka have him. I mean, Sayaka was the one who visited him in the hospital and cared for him. It's obvious Sayaka loves him more than Hitomi does so Hitomi should give up now if she doesn't want to get hurt. Gah, I really dislike Hitomi now D:<. That witch she was attacked by should have just killed her. Forgive me, I tend to be quite competitive when it comes to couples in anime. . .

Kyubei is infuriating because he’s not evil per se, he just has no concept of human morals. Unless he’s somehow involved with the witches, then he’s just EVIL EVIL EVIL.

Well, it’s hard to say someone is overreacting to having their soul ripped out of their body…let’s be fair. But if I were her, I’d still go for Kamijo. Screw not having a normal “body.” Mami didn’t make dumb mistakes, but based on her confession to Madoka…she wasn’t exactly happy. D=

Hitomi fully KNOWS that Sayaka loves him…Or at least, she should be able to tell. Come on girl, don’t make a bitch move like that and steal her man. lol, did Hitomi even ever talk to Kamijo XD Sayaka did all the work, seeing him in the hospital. I don’t care about couples either way, but Hitomi broke the “Bros before hoes” code….I don’t know what the female version of that is… “chicks before dicks”? o.o

it’d be more scary if Hitomi actually did that bull shit to give courage to Sayaka and dont really like that loser and of course the “rage mode” Sayaka kills Hitomi b/c jealusy and Sayaka finds out that Hitomi did that to help her and more DESPAIR DESPAIR DESPAIR for Sayaka <3

…Except Hitomi doesn’t know what Sayaka is going through as a magical girl and she isn’t helping her in the slightest. =/ It’s just painful to have one of your friends go after someone you can’t have for whatever reason.

the fact that she doesnt know will be the pain factor for the viewers XD but yea i dont think even though it was true, it aint a good idea to provoke your friend like that.. and what do we know? she might really be a cold hearted bit*h
next episode I await

I can’t make big comments right now, but… I almost saw Sayaka turning into a witch… And I just realised that the in dream at episode 1, the structure of the place in blavk’n’white that Madoka starts at is SO ALIKE the amll at the same episode ‘-‘ oh well…

Yeah, Kyoko isn’t doing enough wrong for me to fight her and not good enough for me to just ignore it without saying something XD Homura seems to know what she’s doing, she’s probably the nicest one (morally) next to Mami.

If Sayaka dies in episode 8, the death clock can continue. If not, I think that will be ditched and there will just be more speculah about Homura being from the future, the soul + body thing, etc. WHO KNOWS. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE IN MADOKA. EPISODE 8, COME FASTER

Another great episode, but not as intense. More like filling in the story now, which it had to after the SHOCKU~ of last episode.
Fine, it wasn’t an unexpected shock but still, IT’S A BIG DEAL!
I wonder how all the characters would feel about each other, with Kyoko being tsundere/sympathising bout Sayaka, Sayaka berserking, Madoka confused what to do, Madoka’s mum having an evil laugh in some dark corner, and Kyubei’s like
-ALL YOUR SOULS BELONG TO ME! Yes. He eats souls for breakfast.